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Vodafone labelled 'Vodafail' as marketing stunt flops

Wednesday 18 May 2011 1:11 p.m.

Vodafone has admitted faking a break in at its Queen Street retail store to promote... something.

Last night, the company uploaded bogus security footage to YouTube and tweeted to its followers: "regret to advise the ... launch will be delayed. Major security breach. The shipment ... has been stolen".

Today, sceptical Vodafone fans began questioning the theft claim on the company's Facebook page, noting the security camera footage had a suspiciously high frame rate, odd horizontal lines typical of fake 'lo-fi' videos and no time stamp.

Several commenters on Twitter mocked the whole stunt as 'Vodafail'.

Newspaper The Australian this morning quoted Vodafone spokesperson Matthew East saying the whole thing is just a marketing ploy.

You might have noticed we haven't mentioned the name of the ... thing that wasn't stolen – that's deliberate. Nice try, Vodafone.